IMAGE LIST 1. Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, Chair, 1882 2. Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait, 1889 3. Pierre Bonnard, Poster for "La Revue blanche," 1894 4. René Lalique, Dragonfly woman corsage ornament, 1897 - 1898 5. Alphonse Marie Mucha, Nature, c. 1900 6. Hector Guimard, Entrance to the Métropolitain, c. 1898 7. Louis Majorelle and Daum Frères, Orchidée desk, c. 1903 8. Émile Gallé, Bat vase, c. 1903 - 1904 9. Otto Eckmann with the Scherrebek Weaving School, Five Swans, 1897 10. Fernand Khnopff, Des Caresses, 1896 11. Victor Horta, Interior of the Tassel House, 1893 12. Henry van de Velde, Tropon: L'Aliment le plus concentré, 1898 13. Henry van de Velde, Candelabrum, 1898 - 1899 Josef Hoffmann, Fruit Basket, 1904 14. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald, Ladies' Luncheon Room from Miss Cranston's Ingram Street Tearooms, c. 1900 15. Joseph Maria Olbrich, Vienna Secession Building, 1897 - 1898 16. Gustav Klimt, Pallas Athene, 1898 17. Vilmos Zsolnay, Vase, 1899 18. William H. Bradley, Thanksgiving No. from "The Chap-Book," 1895 19. Persian, Glass flasks, c. 1885 and Louis Comfort Tiffany, Glass flask, 1896 20. Louis Sullivan and George Grant Elmslie, Elevator medallion from the Schlesinger and Mayer Store, Chicago, 1898 - 1899

Images and Activities

Discussion Ideas

This section presents twenty works of art that are representative of the art nouveau style, with learning activities suggested for each one. In addition, the general questions below can provide a framework for analysis and understanding.

What comparisons can be drawn between the end of the nineteenth and the end of the twentieth century? In the response to technology? In anxieties over changing social roles for women (or other groups)?

What are the relationships between art and decoration? Are these different today than they were at the beginning of the twentieth century?

How do we perceive something as "modern"? Which art nouveau objects in this packet look modern today? Which do not? How could people living around the turn of the century have associated such disparate forms with modernity?

How have these artists shown the irrational, the subconscious, the dream state?

How are forms abstracted? Consider the roles of simplification and repetition in the design of different objects. Which objects are most naturalistic? Which are most abstract?

How do different objects in this teaching program relate to industrial production? Which are highly individual and which geared for mass consumption?

What is the symbolism of women in these objects? How does it relate to nineteenth-century views on the nature of women?

How do these objects reflect changes in the conception of public or private space?

To what extent can art be seen as embodying the "spirit" of its age? To what extent does it record and to what extent does it shape that spirit?

What is the effect of material on form? On function?

Can we identify something as being representative of a national style? Do these objects offer any examples? Does such a style exist today in the United States?

What is the evidence for new technologies in these objects?